Sticking to the Background
Prologue – Reincarnation
So, you've probably heard this story before. A guy gets himself killed heroically running out into the street to save a small child from the path of the car but gets hit instead. However, rather than finding themselves in the Good Place, they wake up in a void with a literal goddess before them. From there they're sent to another world where they become the 'harem protagonist'. A god in human form with more power than he knows what to do with and a bevvy of girls who all want to sleep with him.
That's not my story.
I've always been unlucky. Hardworking, but unlucky. No matter what I did, no matter the successes, there would always be something around the corner that would ruin it. My only joys in life were writing and card games. I suppose though, that love of card games is what led to the start of this.
I was on my way home from work, exhausted as always. I worked in a warehouse spending each day moving stock. My dreams of becoming an author falling apart at the seams. I needed money, which was why I had originally taken the job. But it had left me no time to pursue my passion. I couldn't find a job in the publishing business because a recent pandemic had made everyone close all their doors. I was stuck. I had time to write but my schedule meant that by the time I got home, I was far too tired to do anything except play the few games that brought me joy. Recently I have been replaying Yu-Gi-Oh GX Spirit Caller and Yu-Gi-Oh Tag Force. While it lacked the flair of Synchro and XYZ, the school setting reminded me of happier times.
That day had been particularly bad. Late into winter, night had already fallen by the time I left. As I got into my car, a yawn escaped me.
"Another day another dollar," I groaned, turning the ignition. Acting mostly on autopilot, I steered out of the car park and towards the dual carriageway. That's when it happened. There was a loud pop, snapping me to attention. The car in front of me swerved with a horrible squeal, its blown tyre spinning into the road. At that moment, if I had just applied the brake, I would have been fine. But with my lack of function, I violently swerved, crashing through the road wall and plummeting into the street below. Then it all went dark.
"Ren! Come downstairs! We'll start opening presents without you!"
"Coming Mum!" I called without thinking, having been jolted from what felt like a long sleep. I got up from my bed and immediately felt something was wrong. Everything seemed too big. Looking around the room, I found it both intimately familiar and yet completely alien. It was fairly small with only a bed, a cupboard and a desk by a lone, snow-laden window. The white walls were lined with posters depicting various monsters, mainly dragons, which I recognized as being from the Yu-Gi-Oh card game. Yu-Gi-Oh? No, it was called Duel Monsters, wasn't it?
I shook my head and made to leave when I noticed my reflection in the mirror by the door. My breath caught in my throat. Looking back at me was the image of a child who couldn't be older than five years old. He wore stupid blue and white pyjamas with a picture of the Dark Magician on them. His hair was a little too long in the front, beginning to cover his brown eyes. He looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn't think where I'd seen him before. I moved my hand to touch my face and the child in the mirror did the same.
And then, like a bolt of lightning, I was overcome with sharp pain. It felt like a knife was being cut into my brain, forcibly making room for something new. Visions of another time and place washed over me like a wave. No, not visions. Memories. My memories. All my experiences from my former life began to overpower the ones of the new. My old life became clearer while my present became fuzzy. The shock of the awakening caused me to fall to my knees clutching my head.
Even when the pain subsided, I remained on the floor and took in great breaths of air. Suddenly I had the experiences of two lives running through my mind. I was the man I had been, but I was also Ren Cambell, the child of Maria and James Cambell.
"Ren! Are you coming or not? I don't know how long I can keep your mother back!" my new father called; laughter lining his words.
I snapped out of my stupor. I had a life in this universe now and my new parents were waiting for me. Vaguely, I remembered that here, it was Christmas morning. It would cause a scene if I didn't go and I didn't want to spend my new life in a mental hospital for claiming to be a different person.
"I-I'm coming," I called, unused to just how high my voice was now. Hurriedly I made my way out of the room. I could just about recall the layout of the house, so I was able to make my way downstairs with relative ease.
There, in the living room, I found my parents waiting for me by a large Christmas tree with mountains of presents surrounding the base. Flames flickered within the fireplace, filling the room with warmth. I took in my new parents for the first time. Both were sat in their pyjamas, James in a grey t-shirt and plaid bottoms whilst Maria wore a pink dressing gown.
It seemed I'd inherited most of James's looks, including his brown hair, I saw the slightest tinges of grey on his sideburns. From the looks of the various pictures in the room, he seemed to be a football (or soccer) player in his younger days but now he seemed to be developing the makings of a double chin. Whatever he did to support the family clearly couldn't have left him much time for exercise.
Maria was a rather pretty woman with long dark hair and cerulean eyes. She gave me a gentle smile when she saw me and got up from the sofa. "There you are, little man," she said, walking over and picking me up. It came as quite a shock to be lifted so effortlessly but I suppose in my current body it shouldn't be that much of a surprise. Still, it was weird!
"G-Good morning," I said, trying to sound as childish as possible.
"And a good morning to you," James said, coming over and ruffling my hair. "However, remember that on this day, we say Merry Christmas."
"Or Happy Holidays," Maria interjected, giving James a jokingly stern glare that made the man raise his arms in defence.
"Oh yeah, that too," he said, giving Maria a quick peck on the cheek before he shook his head and mouthed the words, "Nah, it's Christmas." It seemed the two of them clearly loved each other but seemed to enjoy teasing the other.
Maybe it was my body's childish nature, but I couldn't suppress a laugh. It seemed I was going to have to get used to wearing my emotions on my sleeve again. That was going to be annoying.
"Now," James began, clapping his hands together and thankfully moving the conversation along, "let's get to the presents. I've seen how you've been eyeing them, Ren."
Maria set me down in front of the tree as James moved a big box over to me. For the next thirty minutes, the three of us opened our presents, my new father occasionally stopping to snap a pic of me and Maria with our goodies. I had to say, it was a bit hard to get excited. A lot of my gifts seemed to be Yu-Gi-Oh themed, mostly action figures of the various monsters like Blue-Eyes and the Black Luster Soldier. While I probably would have been excited about them before, with my old memories I found myself wishing I'd gotten a few more books or clothes. I did recall having a love for the franchise in this universe just as I had my last one, and yet all my memories of the episodes came from my old life. In fact, I couldn't recall ever watching the anime in this life.
It was at that point I noticed the TV in the room. It was old. Like, really old. It was big and blocky, nothing like the flat and wide models from 2021. There was a phone in the corner of the room as well, one attached to a wire. For the first time, I began to wonder if I had been reincarnated into the past. That wasn't so bad though. It meant I had a chance to make some real money betting on sporting events. Well, at least I would when I was old enough to bet. Maybe when I found out the exact year, I could persuade my new parents to place some bets for me. Speaking of them, I noticed my mother look at her new watch and gasp.
"James, it's almost time, isn't it?" Maria said, giving the man a nudge with her arm.
"Oh? Yeah, you're right. C'mon Ren, it's almost time for the ceremony."
'Ceremony? What on earth was he talking about?' I thought as I was once again heaved into the air and carried over to the sofa by Maria. James went over to the old television and turned it on. The picture momentarily crackled before the local news station played. However, when I read the main headline, I felt my heart skip a beat.
KAIBA LAND HOLIDAY CEREMONY TO BEGIN WITH A DUEL EXPEDITION!
Kaiba Land? The Kaiba Land? The fictional Kaiba Land. Things began to click in my head. The Primarily Yu-Gi-Oh themed gifts, the posters in the room and my stupid pyjamas. I didn't just like the franchise; I was living in it!
It sounded ridiculous. Completely implausible. But by the law of Occam's Razor, when you eliminate everything else, the simplest explanation must be the truth. Somehow, I was not only living in the past, but I was also in the Yu-Gi-Oh universe!
There was a date on the news report. December 25th, 1994. If I remembered correctly, that meant this had been Yugi's final year with the Pharaoh and that the events of the original series were over. Furthermore, it would be ten years until the events of GX. If I really was five now, something I needed to check, then if I attended Duel Academy, I would be in the same year group as Jaden Yuki and the rest of GX's main cast.
I felt a rush of excitement. I barely listened to the rest of the news as small fireworks went off to announce whatever it was, they were reporting on. I could actually meet the characters who had been so inspirational during my first childhood! My thoughts were flooded with how they might act when confronted in a non-canon way. Was Jaden always so energetic? Was Bastion really as forgettable as he was presented in the show and games? Was Zane always so stoic?
Before I could continue with my mental questions, James tapped me on the shoulder. "Are you that excited for the duel, Ren? You're shaking."
I suddenly became acutely aware both James and Maria were staring at me. I had been trembling from the excitement that I was inside an anime world, even if everything did look normal to me instead of animated.
As far as I could tell, I was still these people's son, I just now had the memories of my former life knocking around my noggin. It did make it somewhat hard to relate to them though. My memories of this life were so fuzzy that James and Maria felt like complete strangers. I had vague recollections of fun outings and being doted on by the two of them. It was clear our relationship was positive, but I just could no longer relate to them. Still, I would have a long time to get to know them, and they would be devastated to learn their son was no longer the boy he had been last night.
"I'm just so excited!" I cried, continuing my act. "I love Yu- uh, Duel Monsters! The cards are so cool."
"I bet it makes you wish you had some of your own," James said, sharing a small smile with Maria. She nodded and got off the sofa and went into the other room.
Hang on, I didn't have cards in this universe? All those posters and not a measly one? Was this the point in Yu-Gi-Oh history where not every man, woman and child played the game? However, those thoughts were cast aside as Maria re-entered the room with three extra presents tucked under her arms.
"Now, we were going to save these for later, but seeing how excited you are…" James trailed off as Maria handed the first two gifts. They were a lot smaller than the third but with all the lead-up, it was clear what they were. I gingerly took the small box and ripped away the Kuriboh patterned wrapping paper.
Once again, a small gasp of joy escaped me as I saw I now holding a structure deck. I couldn't say I recognised it from my world so it must have been native to this one. On the front, the box stated it was a 'deck for beginners.' It was decorated with images of two green dragon monsters I recognised as Lancer Lindwurm and Lancer Dragonute. I suppose that meant this deck was mostly composed of dragon monsters. A bit cliché for my liking but I suppose it was a common fact that boys liked dragons. James and Maria must have picked these because they thought I'd like them.
In fairness, they weren't wrong. I wasn't ashamed to admit that I mostly used dragon decks in my former life too. For a long time, my go-to card was Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon due to its OP effect. At least before it got stuck on the ban list for a couple of years. On top of that, one of the decks I'd been using a lot online before dying was Dragonmaids. Definitely because of their powerful effects and nothing else. Nope. Nothing else.
Don't judge me.
Before I could open the box, my mother shook her head and placed the second present in front of me. "Now we didn't know exactly what sort of cards you would like, so we thought this might give you a few more options," she said.
The second present was a little bigger than the first. I carefully picked it up and felt the weight. As I held it in the air, I could feel the strained movement of the items inside. Excitedly, I once again ripped it open to find an entire booster box of cards belonging to a series called Curse of Anubis. Once again, it wasn't a name I recognised but either way I was excited to open the packets and see what I got. But once again, I was stopped, this time by James who pushed the last, much larger gift in front of me.
"Now, since you have the cards, you'll need the equipment to go with it."
I froze. It was obvious what was inside. They were bad at surprises but for some reason, this made me a lot more excited. This time, I opened the paper slowly, enjoying the sense of anticipation. I was beyond ecstatic to find a real, boxed, Kaiba Corp Issue Duel Disk had been my final present. The ultimate gift. In my world, Yu-Gi-Oh players would have killed just for the chance to handle a fully functioning duel disk. Now I owned one. It was like a dream come true.
Putting the present aside, I quickly hugged both of my new parents, feverishly thanking them for their generosity. These presents couldn't have been cheap. They clearly loved me wholeheartedly and it was horrible that I could barely remember them now. But we could start making new memories. If this was my second life, I had all the time in the world to get to know them.
Once we parted, my father flashed me and Maria a smile. "Okay gang, it's Christmas morning and breakfast isn't going to make itself. Ren, why don't you take your presents upstairs whilst your mum and I prep the feast."
"Sounds like a plan," Maria said, grinning.
"Yeah!" I cried, still trying to keep up my act. It really didn't feel authentic. It was hard pretending to be something you weren't. With that, we went our own ways. I rushed around the living room, gathering all my goodies and hauling them back upstairs. I will admit, I got a little lost on the way but quickly found it again all the same. Once everything was safely in the room, I finally opened my new cards.
Starting with the structure deck, I was at first taken aback by the strength of the cards. The cardboard used felt a little thicker and wasn't as prone to bend. I suppose that made sense since each card was supposedly supposed to have a microchip inside that allowed duel disks to read their data.
The cards inside the structure deck were alright, nothing that outright screamed brilliant, but it did seem to focus on using monsters with piercing effects to damage your opponent.
Next was the booster box. There were 24 packs in the box, each containing 9 cards. That gave me 216 possible cards to work with. I tore through each pack quickly, separating the cards as they went into a monster, spell (or magic as they were currently known), and trap cards. It was here that I really lucked out. While most of the monsters wouldn't work with the structure deck, there were a fair few spells and traps that would nicely help bolster my duelling might. Finally, when I opened the last pack, I let out another cry of joy. Inside was what I supposed in this time period would be an ultra-rare monster; the Buster Blader!
It was somewhat ironic I wanted to add the monster known for dragon slaying to a deck of dragons, but I knew without a doubt that I had found my ace monster. Taking my cards to the desk, I began constructing a crude deck that I thought would be fun and yet powerful to use against my opponents. However, before I even laid down a single card, something occurred to me.
This had all been done before. In my past life, I was a big reader of fanfiction and in every self-insert, the OC central character would awaken in the Yu-Gi-Oh world, acquire rare cards or otherwise impossibly powerful cards, and use them to wow and defeat all opponents that came their way. Hell, some of them even had cards from the modern era that would one-shot any deck from this time period.
That did make me curious. There hadn't been any in the starter deck or booster box, but I wondered if any were hidden in my room. I looked everywhere from the cupboards to under the bed but there were no cards from 2021 anywhere. Just my luck. I suppose that meant I'd be playing old school for a while. And that was just fine with me. After the introduction of pendulum monsters, the game became a bit ridiculous. There were so many rule changes! And don't even get me started on link monsters. No, I was perfectly fine with this.
If my math was right, and I do go to duel academy in ten years, which let's face it, I probably will, I was going to need everything I could muster to help fight the Shadow Riders, the Society of Light, Yubel and Nightshroud/Darkness or whatever the hell his name was.
But with that said, why did I need to fight at all? I didn't have to be a cliché.
In the canon, Jaden and the others dealt with all those threats on their own. They didn't need any outside help. The more I think about it, I'm basically a background character. If I don't get involved, nothing will change. The world will stay safe, and I will get to enjoy a high school experience where the mechanics of a children's card game will be the major leading force of the curriculum. I could just take it easy. Keep my head down and work hard. I could become a pro duelist. I might even get a girlfriend. In this universe, girls should dig guys who are good at card games. Right. Right?
Yeah, I don't have to do anything. My old life was hard enough. Why should I need to save a world that will already be saved? By monsters at least, not global warming or all the other horrible things that happen in my world. Note to self, in twenty-odd years, stock a lot of toilet paper.
At that moment, the delicious smell of bacon and pancakes wafted into my room. Thoughts of the future could wait. It was a long way off after all. And I was a kid again. I had better things to do. There were loads of good things awaiting me.
Of course, then I realised what else awaited and my smile fell.
"Oh god, I'm gonna have to go through puberty again!"
Halfway across Domino, another child stood at the window, a large grin on his face as he overlooked the city that he had once known to be fictional. He was dressed in a small white suit with stupid little dress shorts that made him feel ridiculous. However, with this opportunity, he didn't really care.
"I've been given another chance," he said, inwardly cringing at how high his voice was. "I know all that will happen. I can become the hero and fix all the mistakes that were made. I'll be unstoppable." He began to laugh, his cackles echoing off the corners of his new bedroom.
"This world has been waiting for me."
So for my normal readers, I'm sorry this isn't AWIAMS Capu 2. I've got a new job and it is taking me away from the work I would like to do. My own writing has suffered a bit and I've been working on a project I can actually publish, not that it is going well. However, I wrote this and the next chapter when I was a little bored and I got excited by the idea for the first time in a while and knew I needed to post it.
This story was inspired by several of the great OC stories on the site and also the light novel; Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs. If you guys haven't read it, I really recommend it. The story is fantastic! It's so funny, definitely give it a look. The fourth book is going to come out this month so you've got a lot of time to get through them.
Anyway, please fav, follow and leave a review. I would love to hear your thoughts on the story. I'll explain more about the focus of the story in the next chapter. Hope to see you all soon.